I hope so. That's terrible. Florida's just not a pro baseball state, I guess.

I can tell you, since I grew up in Broward County, that the only baseball they follow down there is Yankees and Mets baseball. Marlins mean squat to the general populace down there. I would even wagers that horse racing is more popular than the Marlins.

I like how they try and compare Crosby to Ovechkin. Crosby is good, but Ovechkin does stuff that no one else does. I also like the fact that he hits like a truck. Crosby will mix it up from time to time, but he doesn't look for contact like Ovechkin does.

Apples to oranges. Crosby is a better playmaker and has incredible hockey sense. Ovechkin does just about everything Crosby does but also hits like a force and is a marketer's DREAM. Crosby is just too generic to be the face of hockey IMO and the NHL F'ed up BIG TIME his rookie year.

Oh, and for the record, while there were about 600 there for the start, my guess is that there were about 5,000 (I know, still pitiful) at the end. Using my wife's best friend and all her family as an example, we're used to "Cuban Time" - which is always about an hour after Eastern time.

Wilmington-Potomac: Atliano is done after finishing up the 6th inning quickly, throwing 67 pitches. He will likely be shut down after this game, as the Nats have said they will limit him to only 100 innings this season, he was at 93.2 before this game. He finishes the game with 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 SO, 1 BB, 0 R. Great outing by Atilano! Kyle Gunderson is warming up for the 7th.

Andrew Lefave starts out the inning with a four pitch walk for the P-Nats. The P-Nats have had the leadoff man on base in 4 of the 6 innings so far tonight. Rogelstad flies out to deep center. Dee Brown, son of former Philadelphia Eagles star Jerome Brown, hits into a double play to end the inning. P-Nats 1, Wilmington 0 after 6.

Wilmington-Potomac: Atliano is done after finishing up the 6th inning quickly, throwing 67 pitches. He will likely be shut down after this game, as the Nats have said they will limit him to only 100 innings this season, he was at 93.2 before this game. He finishes the game with 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 SO, 1 BB, 0 R. Great outing by Atilano! Kyle Gunderson is warming up for the 7th.

Andrew Lefave starts out the inning with a four pitch walk for the P-Nats. The P-Nats have had the leadoff man on base in 4 of the 6 innings so far tonight. Rogelstad flies out to deep center. Dee Brown, son of former Philadelphia Eagles star Jerome Brown, hits into a double play to end the inning. P-Nats 1, Wilmington 0 after 6.

How's Uggla and the rest of your team doing w/ the K's these days? Getting an better?

Btw, I wish I kept that long PM you sent me a while ago about Volstad. Looks like you were right.

Uggla continues to amaze with his stupidity. Let's see, recent games...gets on 1b (a miracle in an of itself) in the bottom of the 9th, down by 2, and decides on his own to steal 2b when his run doesn't matter. Lost a game running through a stop sign at 3b when the SS already has the ball about 15' on the OF grass. Lost another game in bottom of the 9th, runners 1b and 3b, 2 out. The runner on 1b breaks for 2b, and Uggla goes to cover the bag for a run that wouldn't matter, so the batter put it in the spot dumbsh*t just vacated.

While the game attendance sucks for a variety of reasons/lame excuses, the TV ratings are consistently in the range of 6th-10th among MLB teams.

I was talking about butts in the seats. That's pretty interesting about the TV ratings. Any theories on why the TV ratings are high, but attendance is low?

I always thought that the retirees from up north would go out and watch the Marlins because any baseball is better than no baseball, even if it is not the Yankees or Mets. Sort of the same situation I was in before the Expos moved to Washington. I was a lifelong Expos fan, but I went to Baltimore on a regular basis to watch the O's even though I was never an O's fan.

Do you begrudge people wanting to see some payback? I personally don't think Utley was "playing dirty" but he still hurt my catcher and I still wanted to see him get his come-uppance. I see nothing wrong with that.

I was talking about butts in the seats. That's pretty interesting about the TV ratings. Any theories on why the TV ratings are high, but attendance is low?

I always thought that the retirees from up north would go out and watch the Marlins because any baseball is better than no baseball, even if it is not the Yankees or Mets. Sort of the same situation I was in before the Expos moved to Washington. I was a lifelong Expos fan, but I went to Baltimore on a regular basis to watch the O's even though I was never an O's fan.

Butts in seats is a huge issue. A lot is demographics. There is no worthwhile mass transit, and none that stops anywhere near the stadium. If you go to a game, in order to catch the last Tri-Rail back to Palm Beach, you have to leave by 7:30, and usually wouldn't even see the 1st inning.

Huizenga (former owner who gets nearly all the stadium-related revenue) just more than doubled the parking, this time to $25 as I found out today. The tolls are about $5, so with gas, I'm out $45 - $50 and haven't even entered the stadium yet.

The heat/humidity is awful out there, even by Florida standards. It's out in the middle of the Everglades. The stadium, being a bowl, doesn't allow for a breeze in the lower bowl, and the upper bowl is unavailable except for one promo game during the season and post-season play. The heat index at the stadium is usually over 100 even for night games. Today it was 112 at the start of the game. By contrast, at home in Boca, it was about 82.

It's a football stadium, and there are very few half-way decent seats. In most of the seats, you cannot see much of the field.

What I believe to be the most significant reason is one that is rarely acknowledged, and that's the way the population is spread out. Rather than being in a circle as is the case in DC, the population in the defined market is spread in an area about 100 miles north-south, and and average of 7 miles east-west. The stadium is outside the east-west zone, and is about 20 miles from the bottom north-south. It's really a crap location.

Other excuses quoted by others: 1997, 2000, 2005, 2007 firesales which prevents fan loyalty, the strike in the 2nd season which destroyed attendance.